Canandaigua's John Grabski collaborated with renown producer Steve Albini on an album as he was dying of cancer.{&nbsp;} A screening of a short documentary film on the project screens in Rochester Saturday

Canandaigua, N.Y. (WHAM) - John Grabski's love for music often took a back seat to life. Then in 2011, he learned the cancer growing around his heart and on top of his lungs was inoperable.

It gave him permission.

"It absolutely gave him complete licensee to pursue a passion of his and to be extremely clear about the message," said his mother Martha Brown.

13WHAM first met John in 2011. He described the message his mother mentioned.

"I am not, nor have ever been, a perfect cancer patient," Grabski said. "I'm not Lance Armstrong. Rock and Roll is a powerful message for people who love rock and roll."

It gave him the courage to reach out to renown music producer Steve Albini - the engineer behind the hard rocking sounds of Nirvana, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. It began a partnership that produced an album as well as a documentary about the making of it.

"He wanted to make an album documenting his relationship with the disease, and that's how he wanted to spend his last days on earth," Albini said in the film.

"We were stunned," said Brown about Albini's response to the potential project. "He gave my son many precious gifts. His hospitality was key."